This invention relates to devices for controlling access to electrical appliances or equipment, such as televisions, computers, or other devices, by controlling the times that power is available to it.
Household electrical devices such as televisions are often the subject of parental control, that is, parents desire some means to control access by their children. For example, if parent wants to leave their children in the care of a sitter, the parent may want to limit the children""s television viewing to programming between certain times. At the present time this usually involves having to rely on the sitter to enforce the viewing hours. As another example, a home office may contain a computer, copier, or other equipment that is to be used only during business hours, i.e., only between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM, and the owner may not want others to use the equipment without authorization after hours. Some equipment of this type may be programmable to be inoperative during certain hours, and some other equipment may contain a built in lockable timer. However, in either case, the equipment was especially designed with access limitation in mind. It is much more difficult to limit time of availability for equipment that was not designed for limited or restricted use.
Electrical equipment of this type will have a cordset that is permanently attached to it, with a plug at the end of the cordset that plugs into a wall outlet. Simply limiting times that power is available from a particular wall outlet does not prevent someone from unplugging equipment and plugging it into a different wall outlet.
Ideally, the plug end of the cord should be plugged into a timed outlet, and then locked, but no means has been provided for doing this.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a locking timer that can be used with an electrical device to control access.
It is a more specific object to provide a locking timer in which a lockable enclosure, e.g., of plastic, metal or other material, is attached onto a wall outlet in place of the usual face plate, and encloses a standard 24-hour grounded on-off timer (the invention is not limited to grounded timers). The box attaches to the outlet by the usual threaded member, which may be a single screw. For the typical wall outlet there are openings provided for the two receptacles of the outlet. The cordset for the television or other controlled device plugs into the timer, and then the cord exits the enclosure via a passage, such as a slit. The slit does not permit passage of the plug. The box or enclosure has a large enough internal volume to accommodate the height, width, and depth of the standard timer device. The volume also accommodates the cordset plug, which typically plugs into an outlet on one side of the timer device.
As an added safety feature, there can be a quick-disconnect plunger so that the timer device can be forced out (e.g., by wedge action) from the associated wall outlet. The plunger has a head portion extending outside the enclosure, and can be pushed in using the fingers. Once this is done, the timer cannot be plugged back in until the enclosure is unlocked and opened.
The above and many other objects, features, and advantages of this invention will become apparent to persons skilled in the art from the ensuing description of a preferred embodiment, which is to be read in conjunction with the accompanying Drawing.